Meal Ideas for People Who Train
34 plates that hold up as actual food, each with the calories and macros worked out from what goes in it. Nothing here is a recipe you have to follow to the gram. They are starting points you can scale.
By meal
By how you eat
Chicken, Rice and Broccoli
The plate most lifters end up at eventually: lean protein, fast carbohydrate and a green vegetable, in proportions you can scale up or down without thinking.
- Calories
- 769
- Protein
- 72.4 g
- Carbs
- 81.3 g
- Fat
- 15.6 g
Lunch · Dinner
Overnight Oats with Whey and Berries
Assembled the night before and eaten cold. Carries a real protein dose into a breakfast slot that otherwise tends to be all carbohydrate.
- Calories
- 588
- Protein
- 41.1 g
- Carbs
- 80.2 g
- Fat
- 12.6 g
Breakfast
Beef and Sweet Potato Bowl
A heavier bowl for a training day. The sweet potato carries most of the carbohydrate and the beef does the rest of the work.
- Calories
- 745
- Protein
- 35.2 g
- Carbs
- 57.8 g
- Fat
- 41.8 g
Lunch · Dinner
Salmon with Potatoes and Greens
Fattier protein, so it needs less added oil than a lean plate does. Worth building a dinner around once or twice a week.
- Calories
- 685
- Protein
- 45.8 g
- Carbs
- 74.4 g
- Fat
- 23.7 g
Dinner
Tuna Pasta
Store-cupboard food. Nothing here needs to be fresh, which makes it the plate that survives a week you did not shop for.
- Calories
- 713
- Protein
- 52.5 g
- Carbs
- 83.3 g
- Fat
- 17.7 g
Lunch · Dinner
Egg and Avocado Toast
A breakfast that holds together on its own. Add a second or third egg when the day needs more protein than one provides.
- Calories
- 414
- Protein
- 21.5 g
- Carbs
- 32.7 g
- Fat
- 22.6 g
Breakfast
Tofu and Black Bean Rice Bowl
Two plant proteins in one bowl, which is what it takes to reach a serious protein number without animal food.
- Calories
- 626
- Protein
- 33.4 g
- Carbs
- 87.9 g
- Fat
- 18.2 g
Lunch · Dinner
Lentil and Vegetable Bowl
Cheap, filling and high in fibre. Lentils carry both the protein and a large part of the carbohydrate, so the plate stays simple.
- Calories
- 544
- Protein
- 28.3 g
- Carbs
- 76.5 g
- Fat
- 15.4 g
Lunch · Dinner
Greek Yogurt with Almonds and Banana
A snack that behaves like a small meal. Mostly protein, with enough fat to keep it from disappearing in twenty minutes.
- Calories
- 377
- Protein
- 26.3 g
- Carbs
- 40.2 g
- Fat
- 14.7 g
Morning Snack · Afternoon Snack · Evening Snack
Turkey and Rice Post-Training Plate
Built for the meal after a session: very lean protein, plenty of fast carbohydrate and almost no added fat.
- Calories
- 760
- Protein
- 71.4 g
- Carbs
- 104.3 g
- Fat
- 5.2 g
Post-Workout · Lunch · Dinner
Egg White Scramble with Oats
A high-protein breakfast with very little fat in it, which leaves room in the day for the fat you actually want to eat later.
- Calories
- 445
- Protein
- 36.2 g
- Carbs
- 48.4 g
- Fat
- 11.7 g
Breakfast
Cottage Cheese with Blueberries and Almonds
Slow protein and almost no preparation. It works as a late meal on a day that came up short, and it works as a snack on a day that did not.
- Calories
- 335
- Protein
- 25.7 g
- Carbs
- 28.4 g
- Fat
- 14.9 g
Evening Snack · Afternoon Snack · Breakfast
Protein Oats with Peanut Butter
A big, dense breakfast for a day you are trying to gain on. It is a lot of calories in a bowl you can finish, which is the hard part of eating more.
- Calories
- 719
- Protein
- 47.7 g
- Carbs
- 79.3 g
- Fat
- 24.9 g
Breakfast
Yogurt, Berry and Oat Bowl
Built in a bowl in about two minutes. The oats go in dry and soften while you eat, so nothing here needs a pan.
- Calories
- 461
- Protein
- 33.7 g
- Carbs
- 59.6 g
- Fat
- 11.3 g
Breakfast · Morning Snack
Cheddar and Egg Scramble on Toast
The breakfast most people already know how to cook. It is here because a plan you will actually follow beats a plan that reads better.
- Calories
- 509
- Protein
- 34.1 g
- Carbs
- 32.2 g
- Fat
- 26.8 g
Breakfast
Peanut Butter and Banana Toast
Carbohydrate and fat, very little protein, and no cooking. Best an hour or two before you train rather than as a meal on its own.
- Calories
- 463
- Protein
- 16.7 g
- Carbs
- 63.9 g
- Fat
- 18.2 g
Breakfast · Pre-Workout
Turkey and Sweet Potato Hash
One pan, and it reheats without turning into something else. Cook a double batch and the next two lunches are already done.
- Calories
- 584
- Protein
- 59.1 g
- Carbs
- 57.8 g
- Fat
- 14.4 g
Breakfast · Lunch
Chicken Thigh and Brown Rice Plate
Thigh instead of breast, so the plate carries its own fat and needs no oil added. It also tastes like something on day three of leftovers.
- Calories
- 645
- Protein
- 54.2 g
- Carbs
- 67.1 g
- Fat
- 17.6 g
Lunch · Dinner
Tilapia with Rice and Peppers
A very lean fish and a fast carbohydrate, which makes this an easy plate to put after a session. Cooks in the time the rice takes.
- Calories
- 610
- Protein
- 48.2 g
- Carbs
- 77.7 g
- Fat
- 11.5 g
Dinner · Lunch · Post-Workout
Turkey and Cheddar Sandwich
A packed lunch that survives a morning in a bag. The avocado is doing the job butter would, with a better fat profile.
- Calories
- 567
- Protein
- 53.3 g
- Carbs
- 39.1 g
- Fat
- 22.8 g
Lunch
Beef and Black Bean Chilli
Beans carry part of the protein and most of the fibre, so the beef does not have to be the whole meal. Makes four portions as easily as one.
- Calories
- 754
- Protein
- 43.4 g
- Carbs
- 60.1 g
- Fat
- 38.3 g
Lunch · Dinner
Salmon and Lentil Plate
Two foods that are already dense on their own, so the portions stay small for the calories they carry. A good dinner on a low-appetite day.
- Calories
- 658
- Protein
- 52.2 g
- Carbs
- 51 g
- Fat
- 28.5 g
Dinner
Tuna and Potato Salad
Eaten cold, which makes it a lunch you can build the night before. Cooked and cooled potato also sits easier than it does hot.
- Calories
- 597
- Protein
- 45.5 g
- Carbs
- 69.6 g
- Fat
- 15.8 g
Lunch
Chicken Pasta with Peppers
A large amount of carbohydrate in a plate nobody has to be talked into. Scale the pasta first when the day needs more or fewer calories.
- Calories
- 812
- Protein
- 71.5 g
- Carbs
- 84.5 g
- Fat
- 19.1 g
Lunch · Dinner
Chicken and Avocado Rice Bowl
The lean plate with the fat put back on purpose. Avocado is the easiest way to add fat to a bowl without adding a sauce nobody measures.
- Calories
- 812
- Protein
- 67.4 g
- Carbs
- 92.2 g
- Fat
- 17.8 g
Lunch · Dinner
Beef and Pasta Bake
A dense dinner for a day you are trying to gain on, and one of the few plates on this list that a whole household will eat.
- Calories
- 974
- Protein
- 51.6 g
- Carbs
- 88.4 g
- Fat
- 44.5 g
Dinner
Tofu and Broccoli Stir Fry
Fast, and it holds its texture better than most plant plates do. Press the tofu first if you want it to brown rather than steam.
- Calories
- 602
- Protein
- 31 g
- Carbs
- 78 g
- Fat
- 22.3 g
Lunch · Dinner
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Bowl
Cheap, and it holds together for a week in the fridge. The avocado goes on at the last minute rather than into the batch.
- Calories
- 601
- Protein
- 22.6 g
- Carbs
- 109.7 g
- Fat
- 10.2 g
Lunch · Dinner
Lentil Pasta Bowl
Lentils and pasta together get the protein up to somewhere a plant plate rarely reaches, without leaning on a powder to do it.
- Calories
- 734
- Protein
- 34 g
- Carbs
- 121.7 g
- Fat
- 12.9 g
Lunch · Dinner
Lentil and Potato Soup
The cheapest plate on this list by a distance, and the one that scales furthest. Freezes in portions without losing anything.
- Calories
- 662
- Protein
- 31.9 g
- Carbs
- 112.3 g
- Fat
- 11.5 g
Lunch · Dinner
Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter and Banana
Assembled standing up in the kitchen. Light enough to sit through a warm-up, which is the whole point of a pre-training snack.
- Calories
- 346
- Protein
- 8.8 g
- Carbs
- 52.4 g
- Fat
- 13.4 g
Pre-Workout · Afternoon Snack
Apple and Almonds
Not really cooking, and not pretending to be. It is on the list because a snack that needs no fridge is the one you will actually have on you.
- Calories
- 267
- Protein
- 6.9 g
- Carbs
- 31.3 g
- Fat
- 15.3 g
Morning Snack · Afternoon Snack · Evening Snack
Whey and Banana Shake
Protein and fast carbohydrate in a form you can drink when you do not want to eat. Useful after a session, and useful on a day appetite is losing.
- Calories
- 395
- Protein
- 34.4 g
- Carbs
- 43.7 g
- Fat
- 10.7 g
Post-Workout · Morning Snack
Rice and Egg White Pre-Training Plate
Almost no fat and almost no fibre, so it clears before you lift. Eat it about ninety minutes out and you will not notice it in the session.
- Calories
- 453
- Protein
- 28.3 g
- Carbs
- 80.6 g
- Fat
- 1.3 g
Pre-Workout
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